Exactly how many languages spoken in the Philippines

How many languages spoken in the Philippines ? Are most of the languages mutually intelligible to some degree ? I notice Bisaya shares some of the same words with Tagalog. Do the folks in Mindanoa speak Bisayan languages ? How do most Filipinos feel about Americans in their country ? How do they feel about Americans learning their language. I want to learn Tagalog but I dont want to upset Filipino people by learning it

&quot;Never explain yourself to anyone. Because the person who likes you doesn't need it and the person who dislikes you won't believe it.&quot;

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Posted 14 June 2007 - 01:49 AM

There are over 170 languages in the Philippines; almost all of them belong to the Austronesian language family. Of all of these languages, only 2 are considered official in the country, at least 10 are considered major and at least 8 are considered co-official.

Spanish was the original official language of the Philippines, since its establishment in the 16th century. After the Spanish-American War of 1898, Spanish was reaffirmed as the national language of the Philippines during the 1899 Malolos Constitution.

Under the U.S. occupation and civil regime, English began to be taught in schools. By 1901, public education was institutionalized, with English serving as the medium of instruction. Around 600 educators (called "Thomasites") who arrived in that year aboard the USS Thomas replaced the soldiers who also functioned as teachers . The 1935 Constitution added English as an official language alongside Spanish. A provision in this constitution also called for Congress to "take steps toward the development and adoption of a common national language based on one of the existing native languages." On November 12, 1937, the First National Assembly created the National Language Institute. President Manuel L. Quezon appointed native Waray-Waray speaker Jaime C. De Veyra to chair a committee of speakers of other regional languages. Their aim was to select a national language among the other regional languages. Ultimately, Tagalog was chosen on December 31, 1937.

Although the teaching of the national language in schools began in 1940, Tagalog was not made an official language until the restoration of independence on July 4, 1946. Starting in 1961, the national language began to be referred to as Filipino rather than Tagalog.

Well it depends where you go in PI. Tagalog is spoken as the first lanaguage in the manila area. Yet other regions speak other languages. My fiance is from ilocos norte so she speaks ilocano. Yet Filipino which is Tagalog is the one of the national language. This it is easier to learn cos they are more resources for it, books, movies music etc. Also the people in PI will be thrilled to learn that you can speak some Tagalog or the region language. My fiance relatives were kind impressed with my balaktot tagalog.

How many languages spoken in the Philippines ? Are most of the languages mutually intelligible to some degree ? I notice Bisaya shares some of the same words with Tagalog. Do the folks in Mindanoa speak Bisayan languages ? How do most Filipinos feel about Americans in their country ? How do they feel about Americans learning their language. I want to learn Tagalog but I dont want to upset Filipino people by learning it

There are about 80 major language groups in the Philippines, with more than 500 dialects... Its cute to hear Americans speak our language, because its more "slang".. and we find them smart too! And with how we feel about Americans/foreigners in the Philippines??? That's a good sign and is advantageous for the Philippines Tourism Industry coz that means we are still considered as a "destination"!

You probably won't upset anyone by learning Tagalog, unless you say something REALLY wrong(lol) There seems to be some words carried over from tagalog to the other languages and also between the other ones as well.

Its cute for a foreigner to speak filipino languages.I keep on laughing everytime someone wants me to translate tagalog phrase to English..due to their pronounciation .There are a lot of people here ask me if I did teach my husband speaks filipino or Bisaya.I refused to teach him..otherwise I cannot talk about him whenver I am chatting wiht my friends and he will become nossey of our conversations since he understand filipino dialect already.Kind of selfish huh

That sounds like what a German GF I had once did.....in their schools, they all learned English and French, so any time I started to understand what they were talking about in German, then they switched to French....for me, that was the unbreakable secret code!